Absolute Dark - Two (UPDATE#1)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two — Sex & Disappointment

Jane is a traditionally beautiful girl, naturally blond hair & huge baby blue eyes.

Curved in all the right places, envy for her beauty took me over when she arrived late to one of our earliest Ethics in Journalism lectures, though I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

She had that effect on a room. 

I couldn't have cared less by the time the class was nearing its end, until she corrected the professor, a minor date correction, but enough to pique my interest. 

She confided in the class that the only reason she knew one of the dates was wrong was because she'd been studying the same case on her own time. 

The class had ended, the professor thanked us & Jane looked right at me from her spot up front.

I smiled, I couldn't help myself. She smiled back.

I'd only been with one girl before, didn't really consider myself all that emotionally open to people, much less sexually.

That changed as she walked up the stairs, her eyes locked on mine, I can't imagine how badly I was blushing but I knew my face was hot. 

Her deep, sultry voice betrayed her colourful dress & makeup.

She must have looked like a doll talking to a junkie, not that I ever was, she is just that cute.

She pulled her dress forward so it wouldn't wrinkle as she sat beside me. 

"Pretty badass, walking in late and correcting the professor." I tried to force my heartbeat to calm down. 

"I guess I'm pretty badass then huh?" She winked at me. 

"Guess so. I'm Abigail…"

"Very nice to meet you Abigail, I'm Jane. I've seen you correct a teacher or two so far." I honestly didn't think she'd ever noticed me.

She continued, "So, I'm hoping that you can help me with the stuff I missed last week? I've got my apartment to myself and a lot of wine, if that sweetens the deal at all for you." 

"Let me bring some weed & you've got a deal." This might be a deal breaker for her.

"Oh I've got that too but bring some more if you want." She kissed me on the cheek and left, typing on her phone as she walked away. 

My phone buzzed to life and I pulled it out of my way too tight jeans to see that Jane sent me her address.

We spent the first hour getting her caught up from the work last week, which she killed if I'm honest.

After an hour however we were just too buzzed, so we watched the Ginger Snaps movies until we passed out on her couch.

I suppose that's how I actually met Jane, I'd known her before but I had no idea who she really was, how open and caring she was, despite how shitty her family was to her.

She just thinks the best of people most of the time. That night we became best friends, I don't know what I'd do without her. 

 I let it get complicated only a few months in, after I'd moved into the empty room in her apartment.

I'm surprised I lasted that long, it's not like she came on to me constantly or flirted relentlessly, she just made me feel at ease.

I told her about my rocky childhood and she'd even met Coraline by this point. 

We had just run through the neighborhood after classes. She showered while I listened to a younger Coraline scream and cry about how she missed me.

I tried my best to reassure her that she could come live with me in Toronto when I've saved enough, which should be around her 18th.

It took longer to calm her down than usual that day.

She was giving everyone trouble apparently, I did all I could but I did overlook a lot in favor of my new life in the city.

When Jane came out of the bathroom wearing one of her old school negligees that I made fun of her every night for even owning much less wearing.

I laughed a bit through my tears, this one matched the flower light switch in the bathroom.

She held me and told me I could cry, I think it had been years since I let myself.

We watched Back to the Future and got drunk in my room, we hadn't spoken for most of the movie, then I told her, "I think that old school housewife style is sexy as fuck, silly as hell, but I wanna fuck everyone's mom in this movie."

We laughed, somehow getting closer under the covers and causing the sheets to jostle the popcorn bowl to the ground. She was smiling, inches away. 

Like I said, it's not like she was hitting on me, but there was a move to be made, that night I made it.

In the morning I was sure I'd ruined my new living situation and destroyed the only meaningful friendship I'd made.

She's just smarter than me I suppose, because she treated me no differently, unless we were alone late at night.

Needless to say, my confidence soared though part of me was worried about my feelings toward a future with her, from the very beginning.

Clearly she's worth it, but I had resigned myself to working my way to a better life with my sister, dating never entered the equation, much less sex, relationships and love.

If there is a problem here it's me, I know this. 

 Jane is a vegetarian, and a damn good one, I've never tasted vegetable dishes like the ones she's made for us.

These things run through my mind as I round the corner of the kitchen, following the smell of bacon like a cartoon character, perplexed as hell but flattered she'd make meat for me. 

In our kitchen I find Jane, like I've never seen her.

Draped in a vintage dress right out of the 50's, it's definitely shorter than any others I've seen.

A single, minuscule white stripe in the fabric runs up the back of both of her legs, from the back of her heels, behind her knees up to her thighs, which ends in garter belts.

She turns and smiles her ruby red lips at me, her blond hair just brushing across her shoulders.

She is dolled up as a sexy old school housewife, and she's making me bacon. This woman might be perfect.

I glance over to the table and spy two mimosas & two beautifully plated omelets.

"I knew that smell would coax you out…" Jane boasts. In an instant I was caught between proposing to her and running full tilt out of the door.

I settled on scooting over the cold tiles to her for a kiss, I held her from behind as she flipped the bacon.

"Never in a million years did I think you'd ever make bacon…" I whisper in her ear before nibbling at it. 

"Honestly, I'm surprised I went through with any of this, but it is your birthday. Can you grab the plate with the paper towels on it?" She turned off the burner.

"Right, yeah…" falls out of my mouth as I grab the plate from the kitchen table. She starts piling bacon on the plate with a small smile forming, "You, do remember it's your birthday right?" 

 "Pfft, yeah, absolutely. How sad would it be if I forgot my twenty-fifth birthday?" I chuckled, turning to put the plate back down.

"I mean, not sad, but you can be single minded at times for sure." She pats my ass and sits down, shooting me a wink.

We enjoy her amazing food, clean up the dishes, and honestly we waste the afternoon playing video games, drinking a bit and smoking too much weed.

Dancing and singing one hour then watching Clone High in the sea of plush animals on her bed the next.

Then somehow we'd ended up back in the living room watching bits of old TV shows from the 90's on YouTube. 

 By the time the sun started to set we were burning out, Jane being the doll she is makes some coffee with the aspartame filled creamer I love.

She plops our coffee down on the table, hustles away and returns before I've managed a full sip.

She's holding a gift bag and I almost spit out my coffee. 

 "Don't be a dick, I'm still dolled up like a retro sex robot for you." Jane takes on a vulnerable tone. 

 I stand up and gently take the bag from her, "I'm sorry, no, It's just I haven't been given a birthday gift since I was 18, this day just kinda feels like a dream."

"Good, open it you fucking nerd you're gonna love it." She beams. 

Chuckling, I open the bag and see a collected edition of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' "No way."

"Can we watch some, right now?" She asks me. 

"I mean, yeah, but do you have any idea how cheesy this show is?" I ask her back. 

"Yeah, you told me all about it, I'm down, let's go."

"You asked for it." I pop in the first DVD and we start our cable TV branded 90's nostalgia trip snuggled together on the living room couch. 

I'm loving the first few episodes, utterly dumbfounded that Jane is too. Then a scene where Buffy & Angel kiss stays up on the screen just a little too long. 

We're already intertwined, she'd have felt any movement, but my body chose to thrust into her hip & move my hand from her armpit to her breast.

She feels it. 

 ****** 

 I wake up slowly as Jane shakes my shoulder gently. I open my eyes to a black screen and Jane standing above me. 

"Abi, we should sleep, do you wanna sle — "

"Yeah." I answer her a little too quickly and she helps me up, leading me back to my room and getting under the covers with me.

I'm damn close to falling asleep again when she whispers my name, tightening her grasp on my midsection.

"Jane." I moan sheepishly without opening my eyes.

"I want to be your girl." Slowly pours out of those perfect lips of hers.

My eyes shoot open, I guess I'm awake now.

I look into her eyes, which seem to glow dimly in the moonlight, and I tell her, "I can never say no to you, but for both of us, I just can't say yes… right now. Jane I do love you, I always will, but it's a huge thing for me to trust someone that much."

"You realize we're basically dating already right?" She smiles compassionately.

 "Sweetheart, I know how dumb it sounds, and I don't want anyone else, I just can't commit right now." I don't know if I believe it, even as I say it. 

Her smile fades and she looks to the bed, this is a first.

"No I get it, it's okay." She turns over, that's a first too.

I think I fucked up. If we hadn't been drinking and dancing all day, I think I'd have grabbed her and said I was sorry, but we did and I was exhausted, so I fell asleep instead.

******

It must have been going on for a while, I remember leaving my phone near the wall on my end table.

Alarms and notifications used to help the vibration setting walk my phone off of the edge in the middle of the night.

And yet, my phone hits the floor with a thud loud enough to shake me awake yet again.

A glance down shows a cracked screen, fifteen missed calls & a time of day that's just too early.

My eyes adjust and I see that it's some police station I've never heard of.

Feeling odd about it, I turn over to talk to Jane, and she's gone. A short jaunt to my door reveals hers is closed. 

Fuck.

So I walk back to my bed, grabbing my phone and sitting at my computer desk. 

"Hello?" I ask, expecting a wrong number. 

"Yes hello there, is this Abigail Nichole Abernathy?" 

"Yeah, what can I do for you?" 

"Is your sister Coraline Abernathy, 18 years old?" 

"Yeaaah?" 

"I don't want to alarm you…" 

"I'm Officer William Brooks calling from Brightmane police department out here in B.C., now it appears that Miss Coraline Abernathy has disappeared, and may have been abducted & I am obligated to inform her next of kin of the investigation." 

"Wait, I'm sorry, not missing, you're saying you think she's been kidnapped? I just talked to her yesterday." I feel my heart racing faster and faster.

"Yes ma'am, I am aware of that, we cannot find her and foul play is suspected. So we have opened an investiga- "

I hang up on Officer Brooks.